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New Year resolutions every leader should make

May 1, 2019

The New Year is a great opportunity for every leader to reflect and learn from the previous year and to move forward and plan for the year ahead.

If you haven’t already, make sure you put some time aside to set your resolutions and business goals. This will help you to focus on your businesses strategy for the coming months, and then make sure that you clearly communicate these with all your people, so that you can all drive the business forward together.

These are some of my client's resolutions, to enable them to continue growing their business by investing in their people.

Regular contact

Make sure that you and all your managers commit to regular one-to-one meetings with all members of your team. As the weeks turn in to months if you don’t consistently keep these in the diary, it is so easy to get bogged down with day-to-day business, and during busy periods and challenging times, these meetings can very easily get cancelled and pushed to one side.

You are losing an invaluable method of connecting and engaging with your people. Many people issues arise due to a lack of communication. Through regular contact, these issues can be resolved and dealt with quickly before they escalate into something much bigger.

Engage with your people

Employee engagement continues to be a major challenge for businesses. A personal connection with your employees is vital in creating trust and in nurturing an inclusive culture. It is all too easy to disconnect with people if we only rely on the impersonal use of digital interaction with employees.

Make the time to engage and connect with everyone on a personal level. You could do this by having a walk around, or by scheduling a breakfast, lunch or coffee meeting, a few times a year with small groups or individuals. These are an excellent mechanism to get a view of daily life for all of your staff. It can provide the opportunity to resolve any issues on the spot, or at least bring issues to your attention that you may otherwise have been unaware of.

Trust and listen

Don’t micromanage your employees, learn to delegate and trust them. You hired them for a reason and if you are micromanaging it sends a message that you don’t trust them, or believe in their capability to do their job.

Become a better listener, your people have ideas and can give you a different perspective. Whilst not all of their ideas will be great, you can take the opportunity to listen, coach and develop their abilities and really understand them. This will help to build their trust and will earn their loyalty and respect.

Resolve to be a great leader

Be a leader that inspires your team and makes them want to follow. Be consistent and lead by example. Everyone watches how you dress, when you arrive at work, when you leave and how you interact with everyone. Your behaviour is the best argument for how you would like others to behave.

Take tough management decisions

What have you been putting off? Be honest with yourself and take action to resolve it. Don’t let the problem continue, it erodes morale and erodes your credibility with your people.

How will you make your resolutions work? Start by talking to your team about the plans for the coming year and get them to participate in the process. They may identify areas that you haven’t considered, and they will appreciate being involved.

 

How can Dakota Blue Consulting help?

The team at Dakota Blue Consulting is made up of experienced HR Directors, we work with a diverse range of businesses to help them get the best from their people.  From Executive Management Coaching and Mentoring through to everyday HR management.  Call us on 01233 622651 or email us on hello@dakotablueconsulting.com to find out how we can help you and your business. 

 

 

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